Opinion | ADEM: where corporations regulate themselves … maybe

Imagine, if you will, that your home is burglarized and you happen to catch the break-in on your surveillance video.

You take it to the cops. They quickly ID the perpetrators of the crime.

But instead of arresting the burglars, the cops tell you that they’re going to allow the burglars to go back to your house, assess any potential damage, decide if they did anything wrong and then send a report to the cops letting them know how the burglars plan to punish themselves.

Sound ridiculous?

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Well, then you must be unfamiliar with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Because that’s how ADEM — the thin line of defense between average Alabama citizens and big corporations dumping polluting our water, air and dirt — plays it.

If that sounds unbelievable, you probably haven’t watched WHNT’s Chelsea Brentzel’s stories recently on 3M and its top secret dump sites around Lawrence County. Sites where, in the dark of night, the company hauled off truck loads of waste, rolled up to an empty field alongside a county road and dumped it.

Multiple sites.

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Hundreds of acres.

Dozens of truckloads.

Brentzel, who has been chasing 3M pollution stories in north Alabama since an entire community was warned by its water service not to drink the tap water, came across the dump site info by way of concerned neighbors who noticed their neighbors quickly moving out of their home one night. When they inquired about what was going on, the folks moving out told them a weird story.

They had discovered an old dump site on their property. 3M had quickly swooped in, paid them a hefty sum for the property and they were moving on.

This wasn’t the only piece of property like it.

If you’re wondering — and given Alabama’s lax environmental regulations, it would be more than fair to wonder — it is illegal even in this state to dump hazardous waste inappropriately. And “in a random field” qualifies as inappropriately.

So, after hearing these stories, Brentzel contacted ADEM to see what they planned to do about this.

Send the cavalry, with test tubes and subpoenas. Get samples. And then bust some environmental evil-doers.

Right?

Not quite.

ADEM told WHNT that it had been in contact with 3M — the burglars in the above analogy — and 3M was investigating what occurred. 3M was going to test the sites, ADEM said, and then get back to ADEM to let the agency know what they found and what they planned to do about it, if anything.

I’m going to go out on a limb — hopefully not one near a 3M secret dump site — and guess that 3M isn’t going to bring the hammer down on 3M.

What a ridiculous joke.

You know, this state is filled with people who love the outdoors. We hunt and fish and have the most “salt life” car window stickers per capita than any other state. And yet, this is how we treat our environment.

By not caring enough to even demand that the one body charged with oversight of these companies and our land, water and air does its damn job.

How many times does ADEM have to fail us before we demand and force changes? We already can’t swim in parts of most of the rivers in this state. We can’t eat the fish from some of them. We can’t drink the tap water in some places. Our children can’t play in the dirt in some cities. We’ve got 18th-century diseases reemerging in the Black Belt.

And through it all, ADEM has consistently, almost without fail, been on the wrong side. There to explain away the corporation’s actions. There to explain why it’s probably not what it seems. There to offer a more “cost effective” solution to people dying.

In the weeks since WHNT and Brentzel first reported the illegal dump site, ADEM has done nothing. But Brentzel has. She tracked down a truck driver who actually dumped the stuff for a 3M contractor. He showed her exactly where he dumped it, told her how many times he made trips out there to dump the waste.

Josh Moon is an investigative reporter and featured columnist at the Alabama Political Reporter with years of political reporting experience in Alabama. You can email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.

Above-normal hurricane season predicted

Monday marks the first day of hurricane season, and in a statement Monday, Gov. Kay Ivey warned of the potential of numerous hurricanes this season.

“June 1 marks the first day of hurricane season, and as we know, Alabama is far too familiar with the uncertainty and damage that accompanies any severe weather. The National Weather Service is predicting an above-normal 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs now through November 30,” Ivey said in a statement.

“As our country focuses on safely reopening our economy and combatting a health pandemic, it is also vitally important we remember to make preparations now for any severe weather, because hurricanes, tornadoes and severe weather will not wait for us to be ready. Hurricane preparedness must still be a focus for every Alabamian,” Ivey continued.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a 60 percent chance of an above-normal season.

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“NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a likely range of 13 to 19 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher),” according to NOAA’s website.

Alabama State Waters reopen for shrimping on June 1

Tuesday, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Marine Resources Division announced that pursuant to Section 9-12-46, Code of Alabama 1975, all inside waters not permanently closed by law or regulation will open for shrimp harvesting at 6 a.m., on Monday, June 1, 2020.

Licensed live bait dealers holding a permit for Special Live Bait Areas are reminded that an area beside the Battleship Alabama south of the Tensaw River Bridge, north of a line from the north point of Pinto Pass (N30 40.755, W88 01.124) to the northwest edge of Goat Island (N30 40.124, W88 00.784), and west of a line from the northwest edge of Goat Island to the eastern end of Tensaw River Bridge (N30 40.955, W88 00.444) will be open from one hour before sunrise until sunset from June 1 to December 31, 2020.

Shrimp are an important food species for a number of fish and wildlife species. Alabama waters contain 15 to 22 species of shrimp. Only three of these are normally eaten by humans. These are: the brown shrimp (Penaeus aztecus), the white shrimp (P. setiferus), and the pink shrimp (P. duorarum). Shrimp, along with crabs, lobsters, and crayfish, are a species of invertebrates known as decapods. There are about 2,000 species of shrimp in the world.

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The brown shrimp is by far the most abundant The pink shrimp is the least abundant of the three. Alabamians harvest approximately 20.5 million pounds of shrimp with an estimated dockside value of $45 million.

The ADCNR closes Alabama’s waters around May 1 each year because May is when the juvenile brown shrimp begin to leave their nurseries in the wetlands and marshes to explore deeper water. The break in the shrimping action gives the commercially important shrimp time to age and grow without fishing pressure.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources promotes wise stewardship, management and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through four divisions: Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources promotes wise stewardship, management and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through four divisions: Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries.

Ivey announces $11.9 million for fisheries impacted by COVID-19, flooding

Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday announced the $3.3 million in federal coronavirus aid money will be available in the coming months to Alabama’s seafood industry, impacted by the outbreak.

In addition to the $3.3 million from the CARES Act, the state is to also receive $8.6 million in federal fisheries disaster relief funds due to freshwater flooding in 2019 that impacted fisheries in the Gulf, according to a press release from Ivey’s office Wednesday.

“The Gulf and its fisheries are vital to Alabama’s economy by providing jobs for fishermen, processors, and others in the seafood industry,” Ivey said in a statement. “We are thankful to provide this much needed relief to those affected in our coastal communities.”

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources worked with the seafood industry to calculate the damages and coordinated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the disaster relief funding.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is currently and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish eligibility guidelines for applicants, the press release states. Those guidelines are expected to be finalized and released “in the coming months.”

“Once we receive documentation regarding the guidelines, the state will develop a spending plan and submit it to NOAA for approval,” said Christopher Blankenship, ADCNR Commissioner, in a statement. “When approved, we will announce the application period and the requirements for eligibility to the public. I would like to thank Senator Richard Shelby for his work to provide the fisheries disaster funding for the seafood industry and for including the fisheries funding in the CARES Act.”

Visit NOAA’s website for more information on federal relief for fisheries and the response to COVID-19.

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ADEM receives EPA grant to “help keep our waters clean”

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management recently received a $500,000 competitive grant from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency as part of ADEM’s efforts to keep trash out of Alabama’s waterways and from entering the Gulf of Mexico.

“ADEM has a long history of fostering good stewardship of the Gulf’s vast natural resources,” ADEM Director Lance LeFleur said.“This grant will help the Department preserve, enhance and develop the area’s resources for present and future generations of Alabamians.”

The “Help Keep Our Waters Clean” project is designed to promote awareness about watersheds and reduce nonpoint source pollution entering waterways that drain to the Gulf of Mexico. A goal of the project is to engage the community in the fight against litter through education and outreach that encourage the use of voluntary and sustainable best practices.

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“We want to inspire and empower citizens through their voluntary actions to help prevent litter from even reaching our waterways,” LeFleur said. “This project will both educate them about the importance of our rivers, streams and other bodies of water, and create opportunities for them to actually get involved in efforts to prevent and collect litter.”

Perhaps the most visible aspects of the “Help Keep Our Waters Clean” project are signs being placed along interstates in Alabama to inform motorists they are entering a watershed and encourage them not to litter, as well as colorful metal sculptures of water life – such as fish, turtles and water birds – that will mark litter collection sites at rest areas and other strategic locations.

An important component of the project is education. ADEM will reach out to disadvantaged and other communities to promote anti-littering messages and to educate the public about the importance of good watershed health. The project will target specific locations andschools in its efforts.

In addition to ADEM, the City of Mobile and the Freshwater Land Trust also received EPA competitive grants.

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“The EPA has over 50 partnership projects across the country as part of our Trash Free Waters Program, which focuses on preventing trash from reaching waterways in the first place,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “These 17 recipients will target the Gulf of Mexico Region for clean-up, trash prevention and education. Preventing trash from entering the waterways will have an immediate impact on the Gulf’s ecosystem.”

EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary S. Walker added,“Staying on the front lines of environmental protection requires ingenuity and proactive practices. Investing in efforts to eliminate trash from entering waterways is critical for the protection of our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans and essential for healthy drinking water. From a healthy ecosystem, to an economic boom, to flood protection, the benefits of trash–free waters are endless.”

According to the EPA, common trash from consumer goods makes up the majority of what eventually becomes marine debris, polluting our waterways and oceans. Plastics in the aquatic environment are of increasing concern because of their persistence and effect on the environment, wildlife and human health. About 80 percent of plastics come from land-based sources carried by both wind and water.

“This isn’t a one-time deal. We want to promote long-term,sustainable, voluntary practices to reduce this form of pollution,which fouls Alabama waterways, spoils nature’s beauty and harms aquatic life. This grant help jump-start those efforts.”